Nucleon-gold collisions at 200A GeV using tagged d + Au interactions in the PHOBOS detector

• Main Authors: Back, B. B. (Author), Baker, M. D. (Author), Barton, D. S. (Author), Becker, B. (Author), Betts, R. R. (Author), Bickley, A. A. (Author), Bindel, R. (Author), Carroll, A. (Author), García, E. (Author), Gburek, T. (Author), George, N. (Author), Gushue, S. (Author), Halliwell, C. (Author), Hamblen, J. (Author), Harrington, A. S. (Author), Hofman, D. J. (Author), Hollis, R. S. (Author), Hołyński, R. (Author), Holzman, B. (Author), Iordanova, A. (Author), Johnson, E. (Author), Kane, J. L. (Contributor), Khan, N. (Author), Kuo, C. M. (Author), Lin, W. T. (Author), Manly, S. (Author), Mignerey, A. C. (Author), Nouicer, R. (Author), Olszewski, A. (Author), Pak, R. (Author), Park, I. C. (Author), Pernegger, H. (Contributor), Sagerer, J. (Author), Sedykh, I. (Author), Skulski, W. (Author), Smith, C. E. (Author), Steinberg, P. (Author), Sukhanov, A. (Author), Tonjes, M. B. (Author), Trzupek, A. (Author), van Nieuwenhuizen, G. J. (Author), Wolfs, F. L. H. (Author), Wosiek, B. (Author), Woźniak, K. (Author), Ballintijn, Maarten (Contributor), Busza, Wit (Contributor), Decowski, Michal P. (Contributor), Gulbrandsen, Kristjan (Contributor), Henderson, Conor (Contributor), Kulinich, Petr (Contributor), Lee, Jang Woo (Contributor), Reed, Corey (Contributor), Roland, Christof E. (Contributor), Roland, Gunther M. (Contributor), Sarin, Pradeep (Contributor), Stephans, George S. F. (Contributor), Vale, Carla (Contributor), van Nieuwenhuizen, Gerrit Jan (Contributor), Verdier, Robin (Contributor), Veres, Gabor (Contributor), Wyslouch, Boleslaw (Contributor), Zhang, Jinlong (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2015-09-24T16:37:37Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 Forward calorimetry in the PHOBOS detector has been used to study charged hadron production in d + Au, p + Au, and n + Au collisions at √s[subscript NN] = 200 GeV. The forward proton calorimeter detectors are described and a procedure for determining collision centrality with these detectors is detailed. The deposition of energy by deuteron spectator nucleons in the forward calorimeters is used to identify p + Au and n + Au collisions in the data. A weighted combination of the yield of p + Au and n + Au is constructed to build a reference for Au + Au collisions that better matches the isospin composition of the gold nucleus. The p[subscript T] and centrality dependence of the yield of this improved reference system is found to match that of d + Au. The shape of the charged-particle transverse momentum distribution is observed to extrapolate smoothly from p + [bar over p] to central d + Au as a function of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density. The asymmetry of positively and negatively charged hadron production in p + Au is compared to that of n + Au. No significant asymmetry is observed at midrapidity. These studies augment recent results from experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider facilities to give a more complete description of particle production in p + A and d + A collisions, essential for the understanding the medium produced in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions.